Multiple Flavours

One of the first things people bring up when you try encourage them to get involved with social media (facebook, blogging etc.) is not understanding why people want to know everything that is going on in other people's lives. That this new form of communication is a little stalkerish. They don't want to know that:

My girlfriend and I just had a fight.
I am eating weetbix for breakfast.
Sarah is such a bitch.
My mother in law is a cow.
John just cheated on Angela.

Point is... not all people use their Facebook status updates to divulge their deepest darkest secrets and stomach movements to anyone who happens to know them. In the same way as children learn to not point at fat people and say, 'Look mommy, that woman looks like she swallowed her husband'. Well, at least not within earshot.

Just like people had to learn cell phone etiquette, people will need to learn etiquette for the new forms of communication. When you go to dinner with someone, if you answer your cell phone every 10 minutes (or at all), the person you are with is not going to be very chuffed. This took a while for people to learn. Just because you could be contactable 24/7 doesn't mean you should be contactable 24/7. When you are in a lecture/play/movie, you turn your cell phone off. All those kinds of things.

To be honest, the status updates of people I know of Facebook pretty much reflect/magnify the people's personalities. I have not really been surprised by what people write so much as reminded of characteristics I had seen before. Reminded or warned. But in both cases, I am grateful.

Blogs are much the same. My general rule of thumb for my blog is 'The Washington Post Test'. Assume that anyone who could read the blog will read the blog and write accordingly. If my boss, colleagues, best friends, family or anyone read what I wrote here, would I want to take it back?

The easiest way to answer that question is to be honest (yet not overshare) and consistent. While my beliefs and opinions may not be the same as the people that read this blog, I would hope that they reflect something of who I am. As such, if people are strongly offended, they need not read the blog again. In fact, if I bring that sort of feeling across and it affects our day to day interactions, it is probably best we don't interact. I am not all that worried since I would apply the same 'etiquette' I use in normal life.

Yes... I agree if everyone had a blog and wrote honestly, it would require more emotional maturity from everyone. Just because you think something is wrong or disagree with it, the only justification for righteous indignation is if that person is saying or inciting action that will do harm to someone else. In our current interactions, I think we allow ourselves to get bitterly upset with people at a much lower level.

Anyway... Another point I wanted to make is that there are all sorts of blogs. Some people do use them to divulge everything in a big brothery sort of way. Some people like to read those blogs, so good for them Although it does bring up questions when you write about other people. Some people write professional blogs, advertising blogs, newspaper blogs, advice blogs. There is a limitless kind. So it would be wrong to label all forms of interactive web based communication with the same brush.

On that note... I started a new blog this week. The aim is to write a paper for the Actuarial Convention. But I need some sort of way to force myself to read and write on the subject regularly to make sure I actually do it. It is also on a subject I have a real interest in, and hopefully enough other people do that the idea of collaborative research takes off. I am not going to bore you with the details... but if you are interested in investments and investor psychology... follow the link to 'Protecting Alpha'.

Otherwise, start a blog.

OK, enough blog evangelism. Promise to not write about starting a blog (for at least two weeks)